This invention relates to a Wiegand effect energy generator and, more particularly, to the use of a Wiegand sensor as an energy generator.
The Wiegand wire is a ferro magnetic wire having core and shell portions with divergent magnetic properties. The currently preferred type of Wiegand wire is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,601, issued on Jan. 27, 1981, and which is incorporated herein by reference. The Wiegand wire generally is used in combination with a read head.backslash.Wiegand sensor which provide an output pulse from a switch in state of the Wiegand wire. Examples of such a read head.backslash.Wiegand sensor are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,263,523, 4,593,209, 4,736,122, 4,743,780 and 4,758,742. Wiegand sensors also are currently available from, for example, HID Corp.
Read heads for use with a Wiegand wire are currently employed in various access systems, wherein Wiegand wires within the access cards provide the encoded information. Wiegand sensors are useful to detect angular velocity in various devices including, for example, meters, disk drives, automobiles, and so on.
Wiegand sensors have various other practical uses that have not yet been realized. One such application is as an energy generator and, therefore, it is an object of this invention to utilize a Wiegand sensor as an energy generator.
Various other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.